After getting arcs for Kanata and Anna, it’s lastly time for Nodoka’s flip within the highlight. In idea, this could make for a stable episode, because the distinction between her nice-girl persona and her precise want to not work together with different folks looks like a subject that will be attention-grabbing or not less than considerably enjoyable to speak about. In execution, it’s resulted within the present’s most boring episode but – and one that will have killed the final vestiges of my enthusiasm for it.
Though the ladies have their new cheerleading request providers up and working, they do not get a lot curiosity till they obtain a proposal from a lady named Rara who goes to the identical college as Nodoka. Rara is the captain of their college’s cheerleading workforce and desires the PomPoms to assist them in cheering on the baseball workforce of their upcoming sport and competing with their rivals at Kanata’s college. We study that she was on the cheerleading workforce herself, however might by no means fairly grasp that cheering on others would someway make them higher at sports activities. She hated having to consistently meddle in different folks’s enterprise when she’d reasonably be left alone (which I, as a fellow introvert, can completely relate to), so she determined to stay to herself and her associates.
With all that potential drama, I used to be anticipating to see both Nodoka’s want to remain in her consolation zone or some enjoyable cheerleading theatrics between the 2 groups, however someway we find yourself with neither. As a substitute, it’s principally quite a lot of chopping between the 2 groups’ competing cheer routines and the precise baseball sport, which definitely feels reasonable for anybody who goes to native video games, however isn’t precisely what I’d name thrilling. And the fixed backwards and forwards makes it onerous to inform what precisely the present wished me to deal with. Whereas the cheerleading routines are well-animated and look pretty reasonable, the deal with realism in all probability works in opposition to them. There’s simply sufficient additional flash in Kanata’s college cheer routine to place extra emphasis on their precise efficiency, however the visible course of each routines is frankly lackluster, and for a present that focuses on cheerleading, it didn’t really feel prefer it did a lot to attract me into their performances. It would not assist that there is not actually a lot to say concerning the core battle right here, since we discover out earlier than the sport even begins that Rara and the captain of Kanata’s college are childhood associates. Neither facet appears to have any beef with the opposite, so the stakes right here principally come all the way down to a distinction of opinion. Whereas there are definitely variations between aggressive cheerleading and cheerleading as a type of assist, it isn’t precisely a subject that will spark quite a lot of curiosity from folks exterior of the cheerleading world, so I believe there ought to have been a bit extra to the general presentation if it actually wished to deal with that concept.
I used to be additionally a bit of dissatisfied with how Nodoka’s position on this ended, because it in the end got here all the way down to her merely getting extra invested in cheering for her workforce than she anticipated and feeling annoyed after they in the end misplaced. It is not less than a little bit of a bittersweet decision in comparison with how neatly and tidy Kanata and Anna’s tales have been wrapped up. However very like how their storylines ended, it seems like a little bit of an oversimplification in comparison with how a lot the present needed to work. In the end, it would not actually really feel like something actually modified for Nodoka, aside from her turning into a bit extra appreciative of the concept of cheering for others – and whereas I’ve come to simply accept that that is the one factor the present is absolutely occupied with, it does suck to see it repeatedly current doubtlessly complicated character arcs solely to resolve them within the easiest method attainable.
I’ll be sincere: apart from my points with among the writing, my largest drawback with this episode is that it’s boring. There’s nothing significantly particular about it, even in comparison with the lows of earlier episodes, however even with all it offered, there wasn’t a lot to essentially hold on to. That is probably the most I’ve had bother speaking concerning the present up to now. It seems like we’ve come a good distance for the reason that promise of the primary few episodes – and with how a lot the present has stumbled since then, I not have religion that it might probably flip issues round.
Judgement:
Narenare – Cheer for you! – is presently streaming on Crunchyroll.